Scoping Out A Third World Pope

A Possibility, With Over Half Of All Catholics Living In Latin America

(CBS/AP)  Hundreds of Dominicans cheered and wished the 68-year-old cardinal well after the Mass, with many chanting "we hope they pick you."

Vatican observers disagree over the amount of pressure there will be to return the papacy to an Italian — Italy still has 20 voting-age cardinals, by far the largest group — or whether the conclave could expand the message of universality by selecting a candidate from a developing country.

Church leaders insist the cardinals' decision will not be based on a geographical calculation. The candidates, they say, will be judged by their faith and their ability to lead.

"It won't matter where he comes from, from which continent," Sao Paulo, Brazil Archbishop Claudio Hummes, who is often mentioned as a candidate, said Friday after Mass.

"It will matter that the cardinals will be in front of God, under oath, and they will have to choose the one they think is the man for this moment in the history of the church and the world."

But across the globe, many of the faithful suggested that kind of talk was merely diplomacy.

"We hope that his successor will be a black person from the African continent," said Patrique Ngoma, a 20-year-old student attending Mass in Kinshasa, Congo.

"It would be better to have a Latin American pope, someone on our side," said Anjelica Navarro, 30, as she cooked up blue-corn tortillas stuffed with fragrant meat and onions at a stand in downtown Mexico City.

Andres Nunez, 67, who co-owns a nearby hardware store, was more blunt: "It's about time we got something!"

But beyond the national rivalries, many said a Latin American pope would help the church counter Protestant evangelism, and a Third World pope with roots among the poor would be better able to respond to the most pressing needs of his flock.

"As an African, he would be able to better engage himself in the battle against poverty, which he himself would know and have conquered," Ngoma said.

Jorge Rouillon, who writes on religious issues for the Argentine daily La Nacion, said choosing a Third World candidate for the papacy would make the church appear more in tune with the modern world.

"He could be the image of a universal church that we have seen more of in recent years," he said.

Some Catholics in developing countries, despite their faith in the church, were pessimistic about the chances of seeing a non-European pope. They accused the church of racism.

"I doubt that the white man will allow a black man to become pope," said Chinyere Osigwe, 40, at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Lagos.

Others, while wishing for a pope from their own ranks, simply lowered their expectations. Andrea Villaruel, 36, begged for pocket change for her 11 children on the steps of the San Isidro Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and praised the last pope for speaking so many languages.

"John Paul II has been one of the greatest," she said. "Well, I hope the next one also speaks Spanish."